{"id":53747,"date":"2015-06-30T14:03:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T06:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=53747"},"modified":"2015-06-30T14:03:48","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T06:03:48","slug":"2014-a-record-breaking-year-for-n-m-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/30\/2014-a-record-breaking-year-for-n-m-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 a record-breaking year for N.M. tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wikipedia<\/a>
Wikipedia Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 Pointing to New Mexico\u2019s slick television and online promotional commercials, Gov. Susana Martinez announced Monday that close to 33 million people visited the state last year, making it a record-breaking year for tourism.<\/p>\n

Martinez said that\u2019s half a million more people who visited New Mexico than in 2013. She credited the state\u2019s New Mexico True campaign for attracting more visitors. That campaign features the state\u2019s famous outdoor locations and several New Mexico celebrities such as mixed-martial arts fighter Carlos Condit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy simply showing a true picture of our state, we\u2019ve been able to attract more and more visitors, and they\u2019re spending money in diners, art galleries, gift shops, restaurants, golf courses, ski basins and various other small businesses in communities across New Mexico,\u201d Martinez said at the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway in Albuquerque, where she made the latest numbers public.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, the New Mexico Tourism Department unveiled the New Mexico True campaign, which promised tourists that they would encounter \u201cadventures steeped in culture.\u201d Officials said the campaign was aimed at painting New Mexico as a place for outdoor fun and cultural exploration.<\/p>\n

One such online video from the campaign has the Republican governor taking a kayak ride in the rapids of the Rio Grande. On the video, she screams and paddles in the rapids to a soundtrack of the New Mexico True campaign.<\/p>\n

Another video features young, fit hipsters in trunks and bikinis diving and dancing in slow motion into Santa Rosa\u2019s 80-foot-deep Blue Hole \u2013 one of the world\u2019s deepest artesian springs. The Miami night club-like atmosphere is reinforced with the song \u201cAlive,\u201d a popular tune by the Australian electronic music duo Empire of the Sun.<\/p>\n

Other videos highlight the state\u2019s many Native American and Hispanic sites.<\/p>\n

In 2014, officials say the New Mexico True campaign helped lead to an all-time high in marketable overnight trips, or vacations, with a 40.6 percent increase since 2010.<\/p>\n

Tourism Department Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Latham said an increase in the advertising budget allowed the state to aggressively pursue those types of trips.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the New Mexico True campaign, we\u2019ve seen incredible growth in awareness, interest and visitation to the state,\u201d Latham said. \u201cThe campaign highlights an incredible variety of outdoor adventures, cultural opportunities and culinary experiences that pique consumer interest, along with providing a unified brand message for the tourism industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increase comes as Albuquerque has seen a jump in tourism in recent years thanks to the AMC-TV hit shows \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d and \u201cBetter Call Saul.\u201d Businesses offer tours of popular scenes from the shows and sell show-related merchandise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 Pointing to New Mexico\u2019s slick television and online promotional commercials, Gov. Susana Martinez announced Monday that close to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":53750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel","mauthors-russell-contreras","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}